Dataset Information

Loss of fused in sarcoma (FUS) promotes pathological Tau splicing.

ABSTRACT: A subset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) patients present pathological redistribution and aggregation of the nuclear protein fused in sarcoma (FUS) in the cytoplasm. Although FUS associates with the spliceosomal complex, no endogenous neuronal splicing targets have been identified. Here we identify Tau mRNA as a physiological splicing target of FUS. In mouse brain, FUS directly binds to Tau pre-mRNA, and knockdown of FUS in hippocampal neurons leads to preferential inclusion of Tau exons 3 and 10. FUS knockdown causes significant growth cone enlargement and disorganization reminiscent of Tau loss of function. These findings suggest that disturbed cytoskeletal function and enhanced expression of the neurodegeneration-associated Tau exon 10 might contribute to FTLD/ALS with FUS inclusions.

SUBMITTER: Orozco D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3410390 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Loss of fused in sarcoma (FUS) promotes pathological Tau splicing.

Orozco Denise D Tahirovic Sabina S Rentzsch Kristin K Schwenk Benjamin M BM Haass Christian C Edbauer Dieter D

EMBO reports 20120619 8

A subset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) patients present pathological redistribution and aggregation of the nuclear protein fused in sarcoma (FUS) in the cytoplasm. Although FUS associates with the spliceosomal complex, no endogenous neuronal splicing targets have been identified. Here we identify Tau mRNA as a physiological splicing target of FUS. In mouse brain, FUS directly binds to Tau pre-mRNA, and knockdown of FUS in hippocampal neurons ...[more]

PMID: 22710833

Similar Datasets

Project description:Neuronal intermediate filament inclusion disease and atypical frontotemporal lobar degeneration are rare diseases characterized by ubiquitin-positive inclusions lacking transactive response DNA-binding protein-43 and tau. Recently, mutations in the fused in sarcoma gene have been shown to cause familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and fused in sarcoma-positive neuronal inclusions have subsequently been demonstrated in neuronal intermediate filament inclusion disease and atypical frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions. Here we provide clinical, imaging, morphological findings, as well as genetic and biochemical data in 14 fused in sarcoma proteinopathy cases. In this cohort, the age of onset was variable but included cases of young-onset disease. Patients with atypical frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions all presented with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, while the clinical presentation in neuronal intermediate filament inclusion disease was more heterogeneous, including cases with motor neuron disease and extrapyramidal syndromes. Neuroimaging revealed atrophy of the frontal and anterior temporal lobes as well as the caudate in the cases with atypical frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions, but was more heterogeneous in the cases with neuronal intermediate filament inclusion disease, often being normal to visual inspection early on in the disease. The distribution and severity of fused in sarcoma-positive neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions, neuronal intranuclear inclusions and neurites were recorded and fused in sarcoma was biochemically analysed in both subgroups. Fused in sarcoma-positive neuronal cytoplasmic and intranuclear inclusions were found in the hippocampal granule cell layer in variable numbers. Cortical fused in sarcoma-positive neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions were often 'Pick body-like' in neuronal intermediate filament inclusion disease, and annular and crescent-shaped inclusions were seen in both conditions. Motor neurons contained variable numbers of compact, granular or skein-like cytoplasmic inclusions in all fused in sarcoma-positive cases in which brainstem and spinal cord motor neurons were available for study (five and four cases, respectively). No fused in sarcoma mutations were found in any cases. Biochemically, two major fused in sarcoma species were found and shown to be more insoluble in the atypical frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions subgroup compared with neuronal intermediate filament inclusion disease. There is considerable overlap and also significant differences in fused in sarcoma-positive pathology between the two subgroups, suggesting they may represent a spectrum of the same disease. The co-existence of fused in sarcoma-positive inclusions in both motor neurons and extramotor cerebral structures is a characteristic finding in sporadic fused in sarcoma proteinopathies, indicating a multisystem disorder.

Project description:BackgroundMutations in the gene encoding the RNA-binding protein fused in sarcoma (FUS) can cause familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and rarely frontotemproal dementia (FTD). FUS accumulates in neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions (NCIs) in ALS patients with FUS mutations. FUS is also a major pathologic marker for a group of less common forms of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), which includes atypical FTLD with ubiquitinated inclusions (aFTLD-U), neuronal intermediate filament inclusion disease (NIFID) and basophilic inclusion body disease (BIBD). These diseases are now called FUS proteinopathies, because they share this disease marker. It is unknown how FUS mutations cause disease and the role of FUS in FTD-FUS cases, which do not have FUS mutations. In this paper we report the development of somatic brain transgenic (SBT) mice using recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) to investigate how FUS mutations lead to neurodegeneration.ResultsWe compared SBT mice expressing wild-type human FUS (FUSWT), and two ALS-linked mutations: FUSR521C and FUS?14, which lacks the nuclear localization signal. Both FUS mutants accumulated in the cytoplasm relative to FUSWT. The degree of this shift correlated with the severity of the FUS mutation as reflected by disease onset in humans. Mice expressing the most aggressive mutation, FUS?14, recapitulated many aspects of FUS proteinopathies, including insoluble FUS, basophilic and eosiniphilic NCIs, and other pathologic markers, including ubiquitin, p62/SQSTM1, ?-internexin, and the poly-adenylate(A)-binding protein 1 (PABP-1). However, TDP-43 did not localize to inclusions.ConclusionsOur data supports the hypothesis that ALS or FTD-linked FUS mutations cause neurodegeneration by increasing cyotplasmic FUS. Accumulation of FUS in the cytoplasm may retain RNA targets and recruit additional RNA-binding proteins, such as PABP-1, into stress-granule like aggregates that coalesce into permanent inclusions that could negatively affect RNA metabolism. Identification of mutations in other genes that cause ALS/FTD, such as C9ORF72, sentaxin, and angiogenin, lends support to the idea that defective RNA metabolism is a critical pathogenic pathway. The SBT FUS mice described here will provide a valuable platform for dissecting the pathogenic mechanism of FUS mutations, define the relationship between FTD and ALS-FUS, and help identify therapeutic targets that are desperately needed for these devastating neurodegenerative disorders.

Dataset Information

Loss of fused in sarcoma (FUS) promotes pathological Tau splicing.

Publications

Loss of fused in sarcoma (FUS) promotes pathological Tau splicing.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets